Beazley became a protege of Bob Hawke, Labor leader from 1983, and in that year he was appointed Minister for Aviation in Hawke's first ministry. He was Minister for Defence, with a seat in Cabinet, 1984–90.[5] In this role he was responsible for establishing the Royal Australian Navy's submarine program, which was beset with some technical problems and cost over-runs (see Collins class submarine). Beazley has had a lifelong interest in military matters; his consequent enthusiasm for this portfolio, and particularly for military hardware, earned him the nickname "Bomber Beazley".

Beazley's hold on Swan grew increasingly tenuous over the years. He saw his majority more than halved in 1990, and was nearly defeated in 1993. With Labor sinking in the polls during the run-up to the 1996 election, Beazley shifted to Brand, a slightly more secure seat south of Perth.

In the 1996 election, Labor was heavily defeated by the Coalition under John Howard. Keating resigned, and Beazley was elected unopposed as Labor leader. He had the difficult task of rebuilding a party that had just suffered the second-worst defeat of a sitting government since Federation.

Beazley, however, quickly made up ground on Howard as the Coalition's poll numbers sagged, particularly when Howard broke his previous promise not to introduce a Goods and Services Tax (GST). Beazley led the ALP contingent at the Constitutional Convention in February 1998 which was called to discuss the issue of Australia becoming a republic. Beazley advocated "minimalist" change and described transition to a republic as "unfinished business" for Australia. He said that foreigners "find it strange and anachronistic, as many Australians now clearly do, that our Head of State is not an Australian". The ALP proposed appointment of a president by two-thirds majority of parliament. In his opening address, Beazley told the Convention:[6]

“

Our nation is a republic in all but name. We argue that we as a nation should recognise the reality of our small "r" republican arrangements by making the necessary adjustments to place the capping stone on that structure -- a Head of State who is unambiguously Australian -- a Head of State who is one of us.

”

In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, as well as the Coalition's large majority going into the election, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister. Beazley did, however, manage to slash Howard's majority by more than half, from 45 seats to 13.

In mid-2001 Labor was well ahead in the opinion polls and seemed set to win the election due at the end of the year, but in August the Tampa affair occurred when the Howard government refused to allow the MV Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, to set down on Australian soil at Christmas Island several hundred asylum seekers whom the crew had rescued from an unseaworthy boat in international waters. Beazley's compromise stance was pilloried as wishy-washy.[7] Beazley's momentum was also stalled by the 11 September attacks. When the November 2001 election was announced, Howard had taken a commanding lead in the polls and seemed set for a huge victory. But Beazley's dogged campaigning regained some of this ground and Labor suffered only a net loss of two seats to the Coalition.

Beazley resigned the Labor leadership after the election and was succeeded by Simon Crean. But by 2003 Crean had failed to make any headway against Howard and Labor MPs began to fear that Howard would easily win the election due in 2004. Crean's opponents persuaded Beazley to attempt a return to the leadership by challenging Crean. The Labor Caucus (parliamentary Labor Party) re-elected Crean in June 2003, not convinced that Beazley offered a better alternative. Some Beazley supporters, most notably Stephen Conroy, continued to plot against Crean, and Beazley refused to rule out a further challenge.

On 27 November 2003, Crean's closest supporters told him that he had lost their confidence, then on the next day when Crean announced his resignation from the Labor party leadership. Beazley immediately announced that he would be contesting the leadership when the Labor Caucus met on 2 December 2003. His only opponent was the party's economic spokesperson, Mark Latham. Latham defeated Beazley by 47 votes to 45. After the ballot, Beazley announced that he would remain in politics as a backbench member and would recontest his seat at the 2004 election.

In June 2004 Beazley battled claims he had a "special relationship" with Ratih Hardjono[8] when he was Defence Minister; it was alleged this relationship posed a security risk.[9]

In July 2004, however, Latham arranged for Beazley to return to the Labor front bench as Shadow Defence Minister. This followed controversy over Latham's policy of withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by the end of 2004. Beazley's return to the front bench was generally seen as a move by Latham to reassure Australian public opinion that a Labor government would not put the U.S.-Australian alliance at risk.

After Labor's defeat in the October 2004 federal election, at which he became the longest-serving Labor member of the Parliament, Beazley again returned to the backbench, saying "my time as leader of the Labor Party has come and gone, it's over for me as far as leadership is concerned".[citation needed] But after Latham resigned as leader on 18 January 2005, Beazley announced he would contest the leadership, saying that he was "absolutely fired with ambition".[citation needed]

Referring to widespread doubt that Labor could win the 2007 election under a leader who had already lost two elections, Beazley said: "There's no doubt in my mind that I can lead a winning team in the next election. The road to the prime ministership of this nation is a long and hard road. It's not an easy one. And there are many twists and turns on that road. I'm in my 25th year as a member of the Federal Parliament and I know this: public opinion is volatile and it can change."[citation needed]

Beazley was re-elected as federal Labor Leader when the Labor Caucus met on 28 January 2005 following the withdrawal of the other potential candidates, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.[10] Labor hoped that Beazley could follow a similar course to John Howard, who failed in his first term as Opposition Leader but returned in 1995 for a second term and then won the 1996 election.

In September 2005, the publication of Mark Latham's The Latham Diaries contained comments by Latham to the effect that Beazley was a "dirty dog" and was not fit to "clean toilets in Parliament". Latham's abuse resulted mainly from two allegations: firstly that Beazley had engaged in a prolonged campaign to undermine Latham in his positions as a frontbencher and as opposition leader and, secondly, that Beazley (as leader) had failed to provide support to Labor MP Greg Wilton, who later committed suicide. All of these allegations were vehemently denied by Beazley, his supporters and others.[citation needed]

In the first half of 2006, Beazley focussed much of the Labor Party's parliamentary inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) scandal, which allegedly involved bribes and kickbacks with the then Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, that universally breached UN sanctions, to which Australia was a signatory. The situation reached a climax in the aftermath of Treasurer Peter Costello's 2006 Budget, whereby for the first time in recent Australian political history, the opposition leader and his colleagues ceased inquiry on the budget papers after just six questions, before resuming further questioning on the AWB scandal. The media criticised the ALP,[11] although many ministers acknowledged the need for the Government to be held accountable for the AWB scandal.

These tactical deficiencies plagued Beazley's return to the leadership and were amplified by factional infighting in the broader Labor Party, raising many questions concerning both his ability to lead and the stability of the party. At the time, opinion polls by ACNielsen and Newspoll on preferred leader had him at record lows. This was confirmed in a forum on the SBS Insight television program on 2 May 2006,[12] which specifically dealt with the Labor Party's political struggles, where some community members voiced their concerns about being disillusioned with Kim Beazley, and a lack of understanding of the values and policies for which he and the party stood. While Beazley admitted that winning an election was difficult, he was adamant that the 2007 election would be a "referendum on the Howard Government's unfair industrial relations laws".

After the mid-term parliamentary break, Beazley's fortunes slightly improved, with voter concern over interest rate rises, petrol prices and industrial relations giving Labor some electoral comfort. This was later evident in polls which suggested the ALP's primary vote was at around 40 per cent – the minimum considered necessary to gain government. However, polls concerning preferred leader still positioned Kim Beazley well below John Howard.

With continued weak performances in preferred Prime Minister opinion polls, 2006 was punctuated by a number of embarrassing gaffes from the opposition leader. At a press conference on 17 November 2006, Beazley confused the name of grieving TV host Rove McManus with President Bush's adviser Karl Rove.[13]

Beazley's leadership of the Labor Party came under increasing pressure. Opposition to Beazley again centred around foreign affairs spokesperson Kevin Rudd and health spokesperson Julia Gillard. According to media reports, the New South Wales Right faction promised its support to Rudd for leadership so long as he challenged Beazley before Christmas.[14][15] On 30 November 2006 Rudd met with Beazley and announced his intention to challenge for the leadership. On 1 December, Beazley announced not only a leadership election but also that all frontbench positions within the Parliamentary Labor Party would be made vacant.[16][17] Both sides claimed that they were in a winning position.

A ballot was held on Monday 4 December and Kevin Rudd was declared the winner and leader of the ALP, by a margin of 49 votes to 39.[18] After the leadership results were announced, Jenny Macklin withdrew from the contest for deputy leader, which allowed Gillard to be elected unopposed to that position.

Following the ballot, Beazley said of his political future, "For me to do anything further in the Australian Labor Party I would say is Lazarus with a quadruple bypass. So the time has come for me to move on but when that gets properly formalised I will let you know."[19] It was also revealed that his brother David had died of a severe heart attack at age 53, shortly before the vote took place.[20]

Journalist Peter Lewis would later cite that the removal of Beazley as ALP leader in 2006 may have been a mistake in retrospect given the leadership crisis that would later ensue with the removal of Rudd as Prime Minister in 2010. [21]

After her own demise as Prime Minister, Gillard has expressed her regret in teaming up with Rudd to bring down Beazley as leader. [22]

In September 2009, Beazley was appointed as Australia's Ambassador to the United States of America.[2][28] His appointment began in February 2010.[1] In his role as Ambassador, he has promoted global free trade through the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has opposed protectionism.[2]

One of his daughters, Hannah, was the unsuccessful ALP candidate for the WA State seat of Riverton at the 2013 election.[29]

In June 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott extended Beazley's appointment as ambassador to the United States by an additional 12 months until at least the end of 2016.[30]

^This refers to John Howard's response to a journalist's question after his loss of the leadership of the Liberal Party to Andrew Peacock on 9 May 1989. The journalist asked, "Do you see yourself as having another chance at the leadership at some future time?" and Howard replied: "Oh, that'd be Lazarus with a triple bypass". From "Howard's Way". Sunday. Ninemsn. 4 December 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2006.